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The most interesting thing with the S&S poll is to see how tastes change and certain films and director's esteem ebb and flow over the decades. It's been non-stop arguing on twitter and the film blogs since this decade's poll was released last week.

[3] Me, too. The two are not related in any sense, and I can't see how they could go head-to-head with the same audience for it to be a fair assessment. I think there's a generational bias in play here.

The real good that comes out of it is that it may introduce you to films you've never seen or even heard of, and nudge you in their direction. When I read the 1982 S&S list in Roger Ebert's movie yearbook in the late 80s, it definitely furthered my education in film. If the Sight & Sound poll leads you to check out Ozu's "Tokyo Story," it's done you a world of good.

What I found interesting was the paucity of classic Hollywood titles - no Lubitsch, for instance, and the poor showing of "new Hollywood," outside of those couple of Coppola and Scorsese titles. No Peckinpah, Altman, Penn, Cassavetes, et al.

Lists are fun to make and argue about. No one should take them too seriously, except as a jumping off point.

I find it interesting how, say Chaplin & Keaton fared better in past polls, and how a film like Singin' in the Rain went from nowhere to the top 10, to now further down in the top 50. It's nice to see that the list doesn't ignore silents and stuff like that.

[5] I still think Lynch will never top BLUE VELVET, frankly, so we're agreed there. However, 2001 would be in my top 10 for personal favorites and "greatest ever." It's interesting that Vertigo has emerged as the go-to Hitch movie for this poll - usually what hurts certain directors is not having that one codified "best movie" (e.g. Kurosawa, Bergman, Godard - the love is spread around). I would think VERTIGO would get a lot of competition from PSYCHO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, NOTORIOUS, et al. Hitch is one of those guys with a handful of masterpieces.